Open secret: The 215 Festival is this site’s better self. Since 2001, when it initially appeared for just that first year as the McSweeney’s Festival, the 215 Fest has been staging author readings, book talks, band/writer mashups, and dance parties DJ’d by actual librarians all over town. Philebrity got involved when we came along in the mid-oughts, and a few years back, publisher Joey Sweeney took part in a reboot of the 215 Fest that’s still shaping up. New on the agenda this summer: At long last, the 215 Fest has begun to stage monthly literary events, each one dotting on to a new, unlikely space.

Up this month: Summer Coven, Had Me A Blast, featuring five Philly poets, on the witchy feast of Lammas, at Martha in Kensington. And it’s a great lineup — Amy Saul-Zerby, Nicole Steinberg, Alina Pleskova, Gina Myers and Elizabeth Scanlon, all of whom have published collections or chapbooks this year. Weather permitting, the reading will be held in Martha’s backyard, which you may know from such other pastimes as bocce, or drinking.  

More info/Facebook invite here.